Second Life would be a mistake for Xbox Live
In IRC this morning Forser shared this link from spong with Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Game Studios Shane Kim admitting he’s spent some time with Linden Lab considering the possibility of a Second Life inside Xbox Live. Mr. Kim also bashes the Sony PS3 Home project, saying:
“I doubt [Sony's] ability to implement it and execute it in a really rich and compelling way.”
Kim also admits that it would be “a lot of work” to implement Second Life inside Xbox Live. My first reaction to the news that Microsoft was considering a virtual world was great. I thought of this back when I learned of Sony planning on releasing their virtual world called HOME for the PS3. My second reaction after learning that world Microsoft has been considering could be Second Life? Please no, no, no.
The Xbox Live blade interface could be improved by having a 3D interface with avatars but I don’t see Second Life being a viable platform for a large number of people. Our sons have hundreds of friends on their list, could you imagine them meeting in an Xbox style Second Life interface? Not me.
Look at the way things have been the last six months and then imagine adding millions of Xbox Live users. Can you imagine having your Xbox crash constantly because the platform can’t handle the scaling? No thank you very much, just keep Second Life as far away from Xbox Live as possible. Another platform or something Microsoft builds themselves? Bring it on.
May 14th, 2007 • 
TD Goodliffe • 
comment | May 14, 2007 at 11:10 | individual comment-link
I took that article differently. From what I understood, Shane Kim was saying that what Sony was doing was actually more difficult and that after spending time with Linden, MS wasn’t going to consider the build because of the complexity.
They basically bashed Sony saying that it was a lot harder than it looked and that the HOME would fail.
I don’t think SL had anything to do with it except for gauging the difficulty of code and scalability.
comment | May 14, 2007 at 11:17 | individual comment-link
We didn’t see the article differently. I hope they continue to consider the possibility of a virtual world. What I’m saying is I don’t want that virtual world to be Second Life. Here’s an even better thought: a shared virtual world between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.
We can always dream
comment | May 14, 2007 at 11:28 | individual comment-link
True. True. SL would be crap. I actually don’t mind the look of Sony’s [HOME] if they can scale. It just really depends on how they proceed with it if they did look into it. I think that MS is too old fashioned to attempt it though. It took them this long to figure out micropayments. If Sony doesn’t get it off the bat, I’d feel bad for them considering the home company is in Asia… the region of the world that is home of micropayments.
pingback | May 16, 2007 at 06:50 | individual pingback-link
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comment | June 30, 2008 at 21:48 | individual comment-link
i think having a Second Life for your Xbox would be quite ok, as long as Microsoft and or Sony would improve its performance and scaling.